ATandT Launches 6 New Phones, 2 with Windows Mobile 6.5

AT&T is gearing up for the 2009 holiday shopping season, with the introduction of six new phones - two messaging phones each from Samsung and Pantech, and two HTC smartphones featuring Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5.

AT&T introduced its new lineup Oct. 5, the day before Windows Mobile 6.5 is officially released to the public.

The Tilt 2 was designed for business professionals and offers what AT&T claims is the "most powerful productivity experience available on a mobile phone." It features a tilting, high-resolution 3.6-inch widescreen WVGA display, a QWERTY keyboard and a 3.2-megapixel camera. There's a speakerphone-with dual speakers, dual microphones and noise cancellation-and HTC's Straight Talk feature for conference calling.

The Pure was designed for comfortable one-handed use (for maybe using while eating a burger, versus while driving) and features a 3.2-inch WVGA touch screen and an on-screen keypad. The camera is 5 megapixels and includes auto-focus, video capture, an ambient light and gravity sensor, and expandable memory.

Both phones offer full access to voice, text and e-mail in a single contact view, regardless of the application being used. A view of all points of interaction with a contact can be seen from their contact card or on the screen during a conversation.

The Tilt 2 will be available shortly, for $299 after rebate and with a two-year service agreement of at least $69.99 per month. The Pure is now available in AT&T retail and online stores for $149.99, after a $50 mail-in rebate.

"AT&T and HTC have a long history of innovation with Windows phones," said Microsoft's Andy Lees, in a statement. "AT&T, by bringing out both the HTC Pure, with its touch slate, and the HTC Tilt 2, with its keyboard, gives people the ability to choose a Windows phone that matches their preference."

The Pantech and Samsung phones instead feature Opera software, which is said to deliver a faster and richer mobile browser experience.

Coming Oct. 18, in a choice of red or blue, the Pantech Reveal is a slider phone with an open-face numeric keypad that opens to reveal a full keyboard. Both sets of keys stay active simultaneously, offering access to both letters and numbers while typing. The 3G phone offers AT&T's GPS-based Navigator service, as well as a full HTML browser, music player, and quick access to instant messaging and e-mail.

The Pantech Impact, which comes in pink or blue, features an OLED touch screen with an on-screen keypad enhanced with a tactile buzz at each button press, for a more comfortable, truer keypad-like experience. However, flip the phone open and a full physical keyboard is revealed, along with a second display screen. The full HTML browser, as with the Reveal and two Samsung phones, is helped along by 3G speeds.

The black, touch-screen-only Samsung Mythic, set to arrive in November, features a 3.3-inch screen that scrolls from left to right with a finger swipe, offering access to favorite apps. And the Samsung Flight, another slider, opens to reveal a full keyboard. It was also designed for easy one-handed use, with a ridge on its back that's said to aid one-handed texting and touch-screen use. It will arrive in November, in a choice of red or silver.

AT&T's new mobile browser offers a three-window format-from the homepage, users can browse the Web and assign bookmarks and preferences; a second, location-aware window offers local news, weather, maps and points of interest, such as restaurant and ATM locations; and the third window offers latest headlines.

"The new browser powering the att.net service brings the best of the open Web to consumer feature phones while making the mainstay of the mobile Web easy to find an also delivering local tools and bookmarking management," said Ted Woodbery, vice president of Wireless Data, Voice and Ancillary Products for AT&T, in a statement.

"It's a rich hybrid experience that gives you an HTML experience similar to your PC browser at home. ... Plus, it gives you easy, one-click access to the tools and content you find most valuable."

Customers can customize their mobile att.net page through their PC by sending shortcuts to Websites through a Send to Mobile feature.

Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.